Photo of the Week #206

After spending the past nine days on Hawaii’s luscious island of Maui, I’m posting a decidedly “un-New York” Photo of the Week. While hiking on the Pipiwai Trail, I spotted this scene of fallen Hibiscus flowers dotting a tranquil stream. Using a tripod, I set my camera to take a long exposure, resulting in the ultra-smooth water you see here.

Pro tip: When taking photos of moving water, don’t use your lens’s smallest apertures to slow your shutter speed. Most lenses start to lose their sharpness after f/11. Instead, use a neutral density filter to reduce the light passing through the lens, allowing you to take a long exposure with one of your lens’s middle apertures.